Page 49 of Mine
“They were moving into the living room, so they might nothave noticed.” Ryan’s hopeful smile had me fighting the urge to shake my head.
Dare’s parents noticedeverything.
I gave Ryan a quick kiss and pushed him toward the door. “Goask Dare’s dad about how his work is going and no one will think twice.”
Work talk had all of them tuning out, so it seemed like thebest bet.
Ryan grinned. “He’s so funny. He said he’s going to put usin a book.”
I thought that was scary, not funny, but I wasn’t going tobe the one to say it.
Dare, on the other hand, might be the one to put a stop toit because I’d seen the look he’d shot his mother as his father had beentalking about it. She’d just kept translating and pretended not to see. I wastrying to hold back my opinion until I’d given Dare a chance to explain what hewas thinking.
I was betting it was concerns about privacy, but it could’vebeen any number of things.
Ryan nodded to himself like he was imagining how cool itwould be to be in a book, so thankfully I didn’t have to shoo him out of thebathroom. By the time I was heading out, everyone had finished in the kitchenand was spread out all over the house.
I had a feeling the siblings had been quietly encouraged tofind other places to hang out because they were all relaxing in the backyard, soit was just Dare, his parents, and us in the living room.
No stress at all.
Nope.
Thankfully they were chatting away as I sat down on thecouch on the other side of Dare, Ryan pestering Dare’s father with a thousandquestions about writing and everything related to it. When the conversationcame back around to us and they started asking more questions, my nerves hadsettled down again and I was able to join in the conversation.
“No, I’d be glad to look over your assets and answer anyquestions that I can.” Dare’s mother evidently didn’t like their currentstockbroker because he kept ignoring Peter in conversations.
It was rude, but I’d seen brokers who ignored the women inthe room, so I wasn’t surprised. “I could also ask around and find an investorwho signs or one who has an admin who could translate.”
As the conversation kept going around work and investments,I leaned into Dare’s side and relaxed as his hand moved over to my thigh tosqueeze it tight. When the conversation turned back toward Ryan, I was ready tolet him have the spotlight for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry.” Lydia cocked her head as she looked at him. “Idon’t remember what you said you did for a living, Ryan.”
That was because he’d been really vague earlier.
Shrugging, Ryan gave another simple answer. “Oh, I’m just apaper pusher. It’s got great benefits, but I can’t decide if I like thenine-to-five or if Dare’s varied hours would be easier.”
He was trying to turn the conversation back to Dare, butthey weren’t going to let him.
Peter questioned him this time. “It sounds like you haven’tfound your passion in life.”
Dare groaned. “Dad, no lectures.”
This seemed to be a well-practiced speech because Dare’sfather just waved him off before signing again as Dare’s mother translated forus. “Figuring out what you really enjoy in life is important. I won’t drag thisout since I’ll embarrass Dare, but have you thought about talking to a careercounselor?”
Dare chuckled. “What he means is that he won’t lecture youfor forty-five minutes on the value of finding your passion in life and tellingyou all about how he found his love of writing.”
Ryan grinned at Dare’s dramatics, but he took Peter’ssuggestion seriously. “I hadn’t thought about that. When I think of a career counselor,I picture high school students taking aptitude tests.”
Chuckles ran around the room as Dare’s father went into themini-lecture version of his passion in life speech, but even though it droveDare nuts, I had a feeling this was their way of making sure we knew we werepart of the family.
Besides, if all we got were lectures about finding our wayin life, I thought we’d gotten out pretty easily.
****
“I told you they’d like you.” Dare beamed as we got in thecar. “They even gave you the same lectures the rest of us got.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “I’m too old for the ‘don’t letyourself get talked into anything you don’t want’ lectures.”
